James Cook Book Award -Ohio Library Council

From the Ohio Library Council Website:

James Cook Book Award

2011 James Cook Book Award:
Celebrating Diversity in Teen Literature

Nominations for the 2011 James Cook Book Award will be accepted from June 1,
2010 to March 31, 2011. The winning title will be announced in late 2011 and the
author will be invited to participate in a 2012 OLC event.

James Cook was well known in the Ohio and national library community as a man passionate about what he did. He was the Teen Specialist at Dayton Metro Library and a strong advocate for teens, diversity, and teen literature. James was actively involved in the American Library Association and the Ohio Library Council (OLC). He has served on the Newbery, Printz, and Teen Buckeye Book Award committees.

James died suddenly on August 1, 2005, and this award is intended to carry on his memory and celebrate everything he believed in so strongly.The Young Adult Services Division of OLC created the James Cook Book Award: Celebrating Diversity in Teen Literature in 2007. This award recognizes a book that promotes and celebrates cultural, ethnic, or social diversity. Eligible books, either fiction or non-fiction, will feature a teen as one of the main characters; demonstrate excellence in writing; promote cultural, ethnic, or social diversity; and have a wide appeal to a teen audience. Any book meeting these criteria, and published in the US within the last two years can be nominated for the award. The YA Division will select a panel of 5-10 school and youth services librarians in Ohio to act as judges for the award.

2009 James Cook Book Award Winner

Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon (KnopfBooks for Young Readers, 2008)

2009 Honorable Books:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007)
• Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby (HarperTeen, 2007)
• No Choirboy: Murder, Violence and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan
  Kuklin (Henry Holt and Company, 2008)
• Red Glass by Laura Resau (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2007)

2007 James Cook Book Award Winner

Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos(Simon & Schuster, 2006)

2007 Honorable Books:

• Tyrellby Coe Booth (Scholastic Press)
• Skateby Michael Harmon (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• La Linea by Ann Jaramillio (Roaring Brook Press, a division of
  Holtzbrinck Publishers)
• Reboundby Bob Krech (Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books)
• Soldby Patricia McCormick (Hyperion)
• All of the Aboveby Shelley Pearsall (Little, Brown Young Readers)
• Between Mom and Jo by Julie Ann Peters (Little, Brown Young
  Readers)
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (First Second an Imprint of
  Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers)